Skip to main content

Roku’s app ditches the hardware, becomes a one-stop streaming shop

Roku might be best known for its popular lineup of streaming devices, but it’s the company’s channel-based streaming platform that underpins its long-term growth and revenue strategy. Today, we’re seeing the first big indication that Roku isn’t afraid of a world in which you don’t need one of its set-top boxes, or streaming sticks, to enjoy the platform’s content. If you’ve got the Roku app installed on either an iOS or an Android device, you can access the Roku Channel — no additional hardware required.

The Roku Channel is the company’s ad-supported, subscription-free movie, TV show, news, and sports offering. With more than 10,000 titles,  it’s a cross between Netflix and the stand-alone streaming apps offered by major broadcasters. It has a better selection of content than the broadcasters, and fewer ads per show or movie, but there’s no original content. Until today, if you wanted to watch the Roku Channel, you needed a Roku device, or one of the many Roku-powered TVs made by brands like Sharp, TCL, and HiSense. By adding the Roku Channel to the Roku app, the company has signaled a willingness to reduce its dependence on hardware sales as a way of adding users to its platform.

Recommended Videos

The move makes sense. In the not-so-distant future, all TVs will be smart TVs. They’ll either run their own OS, like LG’s WebOS, or they’ll run a third-party platform like Roku TV. Either way, the era of the streaming device add-on has an expiration date that is now visible on the horizon. In order to maintain both ad-supported and subscription-based revenues in the future, Roku has to find ways to get its platform of channels onto as many screens as possible. This move started last year, with its launch of the Roku Channel on the web, and its app-based presence on smartphones and tablets is simply the logical next step.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

But Roku has even bigger plans for the Roku Channel. As part of today’s announcement, Roku says you’ll soon be able to add up to 25 subscription-based collections, from providers like  Showtime, Starz, and Epix, to the Roku Channel. This provides two key benefits: One monthly bill that covers all of your subscribed content, plus the ability to find all content — free or paid — through a unified search feature.

We don’t see Roku abandoning its hardware, or its thousands of independently run channels, any time soon. It’s clear now however, that it’s readying itself to follow in the giant footsteps of Amazon and Netflix, by creating the perfect home for its own original content in the future.

Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen is a contributing editor to Digital Trends' Audio/Video section, where he obsesses over the latest wireless…
Vizio’s WatchFree+ streaming service joins the Vizio app for mobile viewing from anywhere
Vizio WatchFree+ FAST service within the Vizio mobile app.

WatchFree+, the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service that's available on all Vizio smart TVs, is now available to watch anywhere, thanks to its inclusion in the Vizio app for iOS and Android devices.

You don't need to own a Vizio TV to stream WatchFree+ content -- the app is free to download for anyone -- but there's a big benefit for those who use the service on a Vizio TV: the mobile version of WatchFree+ will let you pick up where you left off if you have to pause your TV-based session.

Read more
One of my favorite iPhone apps is finally coming to Android
The Arc Search app, showing a search result for how to peel an apple.

Good news, Android users! One of the best iOS apps released this year is finally coming soon to Android.

The app in question is Arc Search. Created by the same company behind the Arc Browser web browser for Mac and Windows, Arc Search is a mobile browser that strongly emphasizes straightforward, simple browsing — with a nice pinch of AI on top.

Read more
Vitals is one of the best Apple Watch apps I’ve used in years
A widget of the Vitals app in watchOS 11 on the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

A little over two months ago, Apple held its WWDC 2024 conference and unveiled a lot of new software features. There was plenty to sink your teeth into, but my favorite announcement of the show was watchOS 11.

Why? Because watchOS 11 adds features I've been hoping to see on the Apple Watch for ages -- such as the ability to pause activity rings and showing you more robust training/exercise data. It also adds the new Vitals app. I've been using Vitals on my Apple Watch Ultra 2 for a couple of weeks now, and it's everything I had hoped the app would be.
What Vitals is and how it works
The Vitals app (left of the Shazam app) Joe Maring / Digital Trends

Read more